Tuesday, April 1

This was my best marathon race as far as continually riding and not cramping up or running out of energy. I attribute it to the 7 days of riding in Fruita and Moab two weeks earlier; riding at a tempo pace that rarely built up lactic acid; and using Hammer Perpetum and electrolite tabs. I forgot the tabs on the first two laps, but every lap after that I took three and my legs would feel renewed and less like cramping.

5 comments:

On my fourth lap, I heard a noise sounding like a loose or broken spoke. I stopped and checked and all were ok. After starting again, I thought about spinning the wheels and checking for brake pad contact. Later when got off the bike to push, I checked and found the rear brake rotor was severely bent. I backed the pads all the way out and it was still scraping the side of the caliper. I ended up taking the rotor off and immediately felt the difference. Not sure when I bent the rotor but I thought on the previous lap the bike was getting harder to push which I attributed to me getting tired.

I had been saying how few pedal strikes I was getting offroad with the fixie. Well I think Landahl fulfilled my quota! There were a couple logs that I would hit almost everytime, and mutltiple rocks that would jar my leg or seat. Maybe because I was more tentative about going over things. Speed and aggressiveness while not going beyond my abilities seems to smooth things out.

The last lap, I felt tired and my reactions had noticiably become worse. I walked more ttfs and had my worse endo on a rocky, watery crossing.

Post race, the scrapes and bruises hurt, the muscles don't. But pedalling home last night into the north wind, my legs have not fully recovered after 48 hours.

Finally, my 2.4 continental mt king up from and 2.2 kenda karma are real troopers. Had some hits that expected pinch flats or cuts and they are still inflated. Maybe those coupled with the 28mm wide stan flows are helping each other in this department. I hope to get these tubeless sometime soon and become even more dependable.